I have rafted on rivers in CO and CA. There's no way to create any good rapids on that nasty river. The flows in states that do have white water rafting are created by spring melting of the snow in the mountains.

I am disgusted that anyone would want to get in that river. It's nothing but farm run off and the "suds" created at the dam are caused by chemicals. There's no good way to really clean up that river unless we get rid of farms west of us that use fertilizer and have their animal waste run off into the river every time it rains. Sad to say, but it's a dead river.

I remember Bob Lang and his love of trees. He lived in a little shack on 23rd street. What a wonderful, kind, smart man. That oldtimer could do more work than two of us youngsters. They don't make them like Bob anymore.

Kansas ranks dead last among the 50 states in percentage of public lands. What choice is there but to try to develop tourism on rivers? There's not a lot to see, and you can't actually get out of your boat without trespassing except in a few designated areas, but maybe there are some out-of-state people who have been everywhere else in the world and have nothing better to do than float down a none-too-clean river.

But why is there a need for a committee to advance recreation and tourism? Didn't Sam's rousing speech a few years ago about all those horse trails that land owners could build in the Flint Hills already spark a major new industry? He told us that tourism was "about to pop." Like every other Brownback promise there's apparently no time limit before you begin to see the results of that popping.

Regardless of what motivates this or who the key players are I think this is a good development. Most of the conservatives I know have a great appreciation for the outdoors in spite of their reputation for a limited understanding of the environment. This is an opportunity to work together in a bipartisan way.

I could see this project expanding to include improvements related to fishing, wildlife, camping, hiking, many areas.

We are having problems with our pheasant and quail populations and this also needs to be addressed across the state.

"We are having problems with our pheasant and quail populations and this also needs to be addressed across the state.'

Not sure how you address a lack of rain? That is main issue with the current pheasant and quail numbers. Habitat would be second, but the lack of rain is by far the main culprit of the current low populations.

When people go on vacation they want to be around beaches, mountains and places like Disneyland. We have several interesting places to see, but they are widely separated and hard to get to. So why wast money on tourism?

Heard that Brownnose got ticketed for shooting two Turkey's and only having one tag. Apparently he was too lazy to tell his guide to walk 50 yards to see if the first one he shot was dead! Clown doesn't come close to describing this jack$#@.